The PL’s Most Stylish Team? Martinez v Moyes article

The PL’s Most Stylish Team? 
 Tracking Martinez’s Passing Revolution At Everton



Roberto Martinez replaced Everton’s long serving manager David Moyes in the summer, the Spaniard’s appointment was an interesting one, given that despite winning the FA Cup, his Wigan side were relegated. Wigan though, under Martinez, played an attractive brand of football that was widely praised. At Everton he came in and looked to imprint his own style on the side, so how has he evolved Everton’s tactics?



David Moyes was a pragmatic and at times more reactive manager than he was pro-active. Moyes’ Everton side were not the most forthcoming attacking side and the team was built around solid foundations. Everton’s attacking approach was somewhat direct with Leighton Baines quickly firing balls into the box and Everton’s defenders often firing the ball up field to Marouane Fellaini.

This season though, we can notice a change in the statistics and an increased emphasis on possession football. As we can see Everton have enjoyed a significant increase in possession, with only Spurs and Manchester City averaging more possession. The club are also more accurate in their passing under Martinez as well as having increased their number of short passes per game by almost 70 passes per game.

The number of dribbles per game is also a decent barometer of how well a side are doing in an attacking sense as using the ball on the ground is important in this regard. Everton are dribbling far more frequently and successful this season (61% success rate) than they were last year under Moyes, with only Spurs attempting more dribbles per game than Martinez’s Everton side. From this comparison alone it is clear that Martinez is allowing the players to express themselves far more.





Everton’s Top Passers 13/14 Versus 12/13

The emphasis in possession has rubbed off on the players’ statistics. Below is a look at Everton’s top-five passers from this season with their passing data in brackets as a comparison to the previous year under Moyes:



There is no Everton data for Gareth Barry given that he was a Manchester City player last year. In all of the other players though we can see a quite significant increase in the number of passes per game, as well as in passing accuracy with the exception of Pienaar, who is slightly less accurate than last year. The biggest increase was from Phil Jagielka, who went from a pass accuracy of 79% to 86%. This indicates that he has been instructed to pass the ball out from the back and look to build attacks from defence.

Conclusion

Everton are sitting in the top-four after a very good start to life under Roberto Martinez. The added fire power of Romelu Lukaku and the midfield experience of Gareth Barry could go a long way towards helping Everton challenge for a top-six spot. The club might have an eye on a top-four finish and if they maintain their current form they could mount an outside challenge for the position. What is clear at this early stage is that Roberto Martinez’s shrewd transfer dealings coupled with his tactical shift has lead to Everton enjoying success as well as appearing to be a more attractive side to watch for the neutral.

Source: Squawka News